preview

Organizational Theory - an Introduction

Decent Essays

Organizational Theory – an introduction

Carl Borge-Andersen, Norwegian School of Management, Oslo

Introduction

This is article, section, 1 presents an overview of Organizational theory.

Definition of an Organization

” An organization is a social system that is consciously constructed to achieve specific goals”.[1] The term social system reflects the notion that there are groups of individuals working together. Management organizes the group(s) which, will cooperate in reaching the organization’s determined and set goals. Thus an organization can be defined as: ”a group of people, with individual goals, who work together to achieve and materialize the organization’s set, common goals within the frame of their own goals and …show more content…

In figure 1 you will find a model describing the classical organizational principles of an organization. During the lectures, these elements will be covered in detail.
[pic]

Fig1 The basic elements of organizations (Notes, HAS3260, Lecture 8 Organizing, Culture and Design, Burton University)

Organizational Behaviour

Each organization has an individual organizational behaviour that can be described through the organizational mix consisting of the five issues listed previously.

Organizational Behaviour can also be defined as:

• How the members of the organization understand and interpret goals and guidelines for the tasks. • How the members choose to give priority to the different tasks • How the members of the organization solve the tasks

The term Organizational Behaviour can, based on the definition above, be divided into two central elements:

• people actions • people attitudes

There is however an implicit presupposition that the actions and the attitudes of the organization members are influenced and shaped by the organizations individuals, groups and leaders and by the impact of the environment.

Organizational Behaviour can thus be said to consist of the following three main organizational characteristics:

1. The Effect – the organizational structure impose on the organizational behaviour[6]
2. The Significance – the human factor impose on the organizational behaviour[7]
3. The

Get Access